Catholics for Choice Responds to Pope Leo XIV’s Comments About Honoring Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, October 2, 2025
Contact: Lilian Medina Romero
Phone: (703) 688-2410
Email: lromero@catholicsforchoice.org
Catholics for Choice Responds to Pope Leo XIV’s Comments About Honoring Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL)
WASHINGTON — Catholics for Choice, which serves the pro-choice Catholic majority, released the following statement from Interim President Chris Wimbush regarding Pope Leo’s comments on the U.S. bishops’ opposition to honoring Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) for his immigration work, given the senator’s stance on abortion rights.
“Catholics for Choice joins Pope Leo in challenging the U.S. bishops’ limited views on the Catholic faith. Attacking a brother bishop for honoring Sen. Durbin’s work in immigration justice shows that these bishops are not ‘pro-life’ — they’re just anti-abortion. Pope Leo reminds us that Catholic values urge all of us to uphold human dignity in all its forms, acting in justice and compassion, and recognizing all social issues that affect a person’s life beyond birth.
These bishops’ actions undermine the lived reality of Catholic families making reproductive decisions. The fact that 1 in 4 abortion patients is Catholic and that 63% of U.S. Catholics support abortion access shows a clear disconnect between the bishops and the faithful people they claim to represent. In the name of an anti-abortion agenda, these bishops push aside urgent issues like access to healthcare, immigration, poverty, and racial justice.
With current anti-immigration policies and increasing immigration enforcement in major U.S. cities, thousands of immigrant families are being arrested, deported, and separated. Now more than ever, pro-choice Catholics everywhere must uphold Catholic social teachings of human dignity, collective care for the vulnerable, and respect for human rights — all values shared by reproductive justice. We are all called by God to defend access to healthcare and safety, which are too often denied to immigrants and other marginalized communities.
Pope Leo’s words reflect the moral complexity sometimes faced by those 1 in 4 Catholic patients who, in good faith, seek abortion care and remind us that the church’s positions have evolved over time and can do so again.
At Catholics for Choice, we take Pope Leo’s remarks in the spirit of openness and hope they lead to the dialogue that so many faithful Catholics are longing for.”
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Catholics for Choice — which serves the pro-choice Catholic majority — encounters, educates, and emboldens people of faith who support reproductive freedom.
